If you sign a contract to buy something and are told the price is fixed, you'd assume that means you'll pay the same rate for the duration of the contract.

But that may not always be the case with companies selling power in Pennsylvania's deregulated market, and state officials moved today to correct that.

The Public Utility Commission is proposing changes to legal terms that power providers use in their advertising and disclosure statements.

It wants to make sure the companies are using the term "fixed-price" appropriately. It proposed the changes after hearing complaints from customers and receiving questions from power suppliers and distributors about pricing practices.

The PUC said some power providers are offering "fixed-rate" service to residential customers, but also have language in their disclosure statements that allows them to hike prices by passing along any increase in charges levied on them by outside entities such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or the PJM Interconnection.

"The commission's main concern is that these types of offers may be misleading," the PUC said in news release, which you can read here.